*On Thursday, Oct. 5, 2017, The Living Legends Foundation (LLF) will present its Hip-Hop Visionary Award to Tyrone “Fly Ty” Williams.
Williams, a pioneer, who perhaps more than anyone, brought hip-hop/rap music to radio airwaves when no other stations in America would play this genre of music.
The event will be held on October 5 at the Taglyan Cultural Complex, 1201 N. Vine St. in Hollywood, Calif.
“I’ve been asked to be honored many times in my career, but this is the only time that I’ve accepted,” Williams told EUR’s Lee Bailey during a recent interview. “But when I got the call from the Living Legends Foundation, saying they wanted to honor me with the Hip-Hop Visionary Award honor, I greatly accepted and began to reflect on how difficult it was to bring hip-hop to the world.”
While Williams is somewhat humbled by LLF’s recognition, the truth is when many in the music industry thought hip-hop/rap would be a “short-lived fad,” Williams and New York on-air radio personality Mr. Magic teamed – thanks to radio legend Frankie Crocker – to became hip-hop’s first radio show called, “Mr. Magic’s Rap Attack, heard on the powerhouse WBLS-FM three decades ago.
While Mr. Magic was the voice of the show, Williams took the lead behind the scenes as sales executive. He is credited with selling the idea of hip-hop to many record labels and radio stations across America. Because of the success of Williams and Mr. Magic to reach a new breed of young people, they were responsible for the debut and sustained air play of hip-hop by now legends, “Run DMC,” “Whodini,” Kurtis Blow, “The Fat Boys”, “Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five” and many others.
“Going to work was like going to heaven every day,” Williams recalled. “Yet, it wasn’t easy selling rap. There was even competition at our own station, because many there thought hip-hop was gutter music and would bring the station down.”
Wrong! Instead of bringing the station down, the ratings of Mr. Magic’s Rap Attack shot to new highs with incredible Arbitron numbers, even though the show aired just on Friday and Saturday nights.
With the success of Mr. Magic’s Rap Attack, Williams and Mr. Magic began making record deals for several hip-hop groups. The two ultimately started Cold Chillin’ Records, which elevated such acts as Roxanne Shanta and MC Shan to platinum status. This feat did not go unnoticed, especially by Warner Bros Records. Thus, in partnership with Warner Bros., Williams and Mr. Magic were instrumental in the mega success of such hip-hop artists as Big Daddy Kane, Biz Markie, Kool G Rap, “Wu-Tang Clan” and many more.
“When I got to Warner Bros. Records, I met people like Ernie Singleton, Pat Shields and Ray Harris and I began to learn on a whole new level about the record business and how it worked,” said Williams. “I didn’t know about publicity, I didn’t know about A&R, I didn’t know about marketing, or know how to take a record nationally, but I learned. In 1993, I had three No. 1 hip-hop records on the charts.”
While Williams was tasting the sweet wine of success, he longed for the days of radio. In 1994, he returned to WQHT (Hot 97), a radio station in New York that was switching to hip-hop. While hip-hop, rap and radio have been a huge part of his life, Williams, around 1996, became involved with a movement to empower at-risk kids in Brooklyn. He began working with a unique group of kids called, The Jackie Robinson Steppers, which at the time consisted of about 20 to 30 young people in a marching band. Through Williams’ vision and hands-on approach to making things happen, the group, now known as the Brooklyn United Marching Band with about 200 members, is a community-based organization in New York that continues to empower youth.
“We are not just a music program,” said Williams. “We’re also an academic and life changing organization. Every kid in my program excels. Since 2002, we’ve been able to send over 1,200 so-called at-risk youth to college. Our first scholarship many years ago went to a student by the name of Allister Primo. He graduated from Hampton University and now owns one of the largest insurance brokerage firms in the country. Our group’s name says it all…we are simply Brooklyn United.”
To learn more about the upcoming Living Legends Awards Gala that will honor Tyrone “Fly Ty” Williams and many others in the music industry, contact Pat Shields at 310.568.9091 or [email protected]. LLF’ website is www.livinglegendsfoundation.com.
We Publish News 24/7. Don’t Miss A Story. Click HERE to SUBSCRIBE to Our Newsletter Now!
